Squirrel (Recipe 10)

Adventure. 

There is not a better word to describe Saturday. From the time I woke up to the time I went to bed, it was just one adventure after another – a day of learning and trying new things. And that, that is a great day! 

Here is how the adventure began.

I am trying out new recipes. After the adventurous and semi-successful attempt at cow tongue, I thought I'd probably just stick to more basic foods for the rest of the Summer, even though trying something new is just too fun not to do. 

The day after the cow tongue adventure, I got a text from Jimmy asking me if I would cook up squirrel if he hit one. How could I say no to such an adventure? Of course, I assumed it was a joke, until he brought back a pellet gun from home and said that he would go out shooting Saturday and try to catch a squirrel or two. 

And thus began the Saturday adventure of the squirrel. 

We left the house at 9am to go into the woods and find some squirrel. Jimmy was ready with his gun and I had some homemade squirrel bait (i.e. peanut butter and molasses).  

It had just rained the night before and there was fog everywhere, not to mention an immense amount of humidity. So, after trekking around the woods for about an hour and not seeing a single squirrel, we called it quits and decided to try again later. 

Later in the afternoon, when the sun was shining and and the ground had dried up we decided to try hunting again. We trekked out into the woods and within a minute saw three squirrels. As Jimmy aimed his gun at one jumping around in the branches, I saw one sitting still on a tree. I called to Jimmy and showed him where the squirrel was. Jimmy lifted up his pellet gun, flipped off the safety, and shot. 

It was a perfect shot. The squirrel tumbled out of the tree and onto the ground. Jimmy loaded in another pellet not realizing how perfect his shot had been. We climbed over to the tree to see if the squirrel had been hit and then we saw it. The squirrel was laying there looking right at us – dead. We both just stood there looking at it. It was so sad. We moaned a little and had a moment of silence for it. Then we bagged it up. 

After wandering around the woods for another hour we came back to the same spot and got another. Two was plenty and we brought them home to start cleaning and cooking them. 

We tried each doing one, but it was hard to get started on them. 

So we worked together to clean it. Neither of us had ever done it before and it was so amazing to see how intricate God created all the intestines of a squirrel. 

It was a lot of work to clean the first squirrel. 

Megan graciously read us the instructions from a website we had found. She wasn't too excited about watching us cut into the squirrel, but without her help we would have taken way longer trying to figure out how to do it. 

Faith and Damarise watched us from the house every so often. 

The website said the skin would come off like a sock... it lied. It was a lot harder than a sock!

But Jimmy pulled and got it!

The last step was quartering it and then we started on the next squirrel, which took us about half the time to do. 

Next we soaked the squirrel in a pot of salt water for two hours.

Then we sautéed it with onions, garlic, carrots, and wine for an hour and a half. 

The adventure that started at 9:00am was done at 10:30pm. It was a long day, but an adventurous day full of new excitement. The squirrel turned out deliciously and the meat was so tender and tasty. 

Even Damarise enjoyed it!

Our hard work paid off! 

The verdict: Jimmy and I decided that we would have made good pioneers. Even though it was an all day process, we did find our own meat, killed it, cleaned it, and cooked it! Damarise, Megan, and Sonya were our eaters and they all seemed to enjoy it. The wine and vegetables gave the squirrel a good flavour. It was a fun and long day, but I loved it! Summer adventures are superb and squirrel = success!